After three years in office, President Obama should stop blaming current fiscal problems on George W. Bush's administration, Dick Cheney told CNBC.
"Sooner or later it becomes your economy, and I think we're to that point now," Bush's former vice president told Larry Kudlow in an interview to be aired later Wednesday, "[Obama is] going to be measured very much next year against his performance."
Cheney said Bush's administration was justified in increasing spending that helped push up the debt and lower the dollar's value because it was "war time."
The Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks forced the administration to "take some major steps that were expensive with respect to getting on top of that, and making certain that we weren't faced with another attack like that on our watch. So, no question, it cost money, but it was something that you absolutely have to do," he said.
Cheney added that in the past the U.S. has been able "to meet those kind of challenges, as we did during World War II, for example, and then ultimately get on with our business."
Now, he says, the Obama administration "has added as much to the debt in two and a half years as we did in eight years. The fact of the matter is, if we talk about unrestrained spending and a lack of discipline with respect to spending, I think the Obama administration's record is the worst we've seen."